Obama authorises limited air strikes in Iraq

Washington - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he had authorised limited US airstrikes to blunt the onslaught of Islamic militants in northern Iraq and began military airdrops of humanitarian supplies to besieged religious minorities to prevent a "potential act of genocide".

Speaking after meetings with his national security team, Obama - in his most significant response to the Iraq crisis - said he approved "targeted" use of air power to protect US personnel if Islamic State militants advance further toward the Kurdish capital Arbil or threaten Americans anywhere in the country.

The airstrikes would be the first carried out by the US military in Iraq since the withdrawal of its forces at the end of 2011, but Obama insisted he would not commit ground forces and had no intention of letting the US get dragged back into a war there.

Obama took action amid international fears of a humanitarian catastrophe engulfing tens of thousands of members of Iraq's minority Yazidi sect driven out of their homes and stranded on Sinjar mountain under threat from rampaging militants of Islamic State, an al-Qaeda splinter group. Many Iraqi Christians have also fled for their lives.

"We can act carefully and responsibly to prevent a potential act of genocide," Obama told reporters at the White House.

Obama was responding to urgent appeals from Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to help cope with an unfolding humanitarian crisis as the militants surged across northern Iraq.

It was unclear, however, whether the measures announced by Obama would be enough to halt the militant advance or shift the balance on the battlefield in favor of embattled Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

Reuters photographs showed what appeared to be Islamic State fighters controlling a checkpoint at the border area of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region, little over 30 minutes' drive from Arbil, a city of 1.5 million that is headquarters of the Kurdish regional government and many businesses.

The fighters had raised the movement's black flag over the guard post. However, a Kurdish security official denied that the militants were in control of the Khazer checkpoint, and the regional government said its forces were advancing and would "defeat the terrorists," urging people to stay calm.

With the refugees on the mountaintop desperately short of food, water and medicine, U.S. aircraft began dropping emergency aid in the area shortly before Obama spoke on Thursday.

"We intend to stay vigilant and take action if these terrorist forces threaten our personnel or facilities anywhere in Iraq, including our consulate in Arbil and our embassy in Baghdad." he said.

Obama sent in a small number of US military advisers in June to help the Iraqi government's efforts to fend off the Islamic militant offensive, but he was reluctant to take direct military action. He had put the onus on Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to form a more inclusive government to help defuse the crisis.

Washington's calculus appeared to shift after Islamic State, which routed the Iraqi military in the north and seized a broad swath of territory in recent months, made recent gains against Kurdish forces and moved toward Arbil, capital of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region.

Obama's decision to deepen US re-engagement in Iraq came after urgent deliberations by a president who won the White House in 2008 on a pledge to disentangle the US from the long, unpopular war there.

Until this week, most of Kurdistan had been protected from militants by its own armed forces, called the pesh merga. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing the Islamists, including Christians, Yazidis and others, have taken refuge in the Kurdish area.

The Islamic State's Sunni militants have swept across northwestern Iraq in recent weeks. The Islamic State views as infidels Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minorities such as Christians and Yazidis, a Kurdish ethno-religious community.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Missy Ryan and Mark Felsenthal in Washington, Tom Miles in Geneva and James Mackenzie in Rome; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Paul Taylor, Janet McBride, Will Waterman, David Stamp, Jonathan Oatis, Howard Goller and Ken Wills)

How can this be legal?? They are not at war with Iraq, there is no threat to America? Where is the international community, or is the entire world now the wild west??

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Mario Kleynhans
2014-08-08 07:08:11 AM

Simphiwe = Simple mind

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Chris Whittaker
2014-08-08 07:22:48 AM

Simphiwe if you read the article then you will see that the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities have asked the US for assistance. This is military action against a terrorist group, not the governments.

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Andre Jacobs
2014-08-08 07:36:02 AM

Not really a good man---he took too long and he is only doing this to save a bit of face with the American public,,,, only about 21% want him as president now after his massive failures as president.

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Nigel van Ysendyk
2014-08-08 08:13:52 AM

what ISIS is doing in Iraq is shocking & disgusting, the world should take action against they barbaric thugs, with their intolerance, ethnic cleansing & genocide.

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Nigel van Ysendyk
2014-08-08 08:15:52 AM

why is it always left to the US to do something, what I find astonishing is the while ISIS is busy with its genocide against the people of Iraq, killing 1000's of civilians & displacing 10's of thousands, countries like Russia, China & Japan say & do absolutely nothing.

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Eugene Fourie
2014-08-08 08:24:07 AM

a couple of well placed nukes should do the trick...

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VoxPopuli
2014-08-08 08:58:19 AM

Everybody on here be like "good USA", "good Barack" & "long over due"!
It's "good USA" and "good Barack" that created this CRAP! Hundreds of thousands of lives could've been spared in Syria and Iraq if the US did not fund these goons in the first place! I don't get you people sometimes!

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Anthoula Joshua
2014-08-08 06:32:12 AM

Good move Obama.

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Andre Jacobs
2014-08-08 07:32:21 AM

--Too little too late---Obama and his people knew about the dire situation months ago but they let it get out of hand. The suenni has occupied vast areas of territory already and they crucified and beheaded and massacred many in the name of ease lam. This seams almost as if they wanted the suenni to get the upper hand as to enforce a better deal when peace is declared. President Obama is actually a suenni supporter supporting them with weapons and training to oust Assad.

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Michael Kleber
2014-08-08 06:36:12 AM

Not much of an outcry about what is happening in Iraq compared to Gaza

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Nigel van Ysendyk
2014-08-08 08:17:21 AM

yea this is amazing isn't it

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Louie Walshe
2014-08-08 11:34:30 AM

Whats truly amazing is that Gaza/Israel, Iraq/Isis/Syria, Libya etc are NOTHING compared to whats going to happen when the US and Russia go head to head. Stop listening to the BS politicians and the news on your TV, start using your grey matter people, research and draw REAL conclusions. Europe, Russia and the US are about to disintegrate into a war of biblical proportions. Wake people, your sleepy, gullible brains are allowing the greatest event in human history to march forward and you are all supporting it!

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Enig Ma
2014-08-08 06:37:18 AM

Good call Barack, long overdue.

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Clint Warren
2014-08-08 06:43:50 AM

Xris I read this on the American sites early this morning. Obama has only authorized strikes if the militants threaten US personnel. I am not sure that it goes far enough.

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Ziyaad Zizoo
2014-08-08 06:42:33 AM

Dronabama at it again. He should be jailed 4 killing hundreds of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia.

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Arthur Harding
2014-08-08 06:48:55 AM

Your right just one question ZIYAAD what about the thousands killed by ISIS???????? Aren't you then calling for them to be jailed as well or does killing in the name of Allah make you a hero????

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Nigel van Ysendyk
2014-08-08 08:18:44 AM

ok mr wise guy, what is it exactly that you propose is done to ISIS, please list your recommended action...... or do you support genocide

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Akhenaten
2014-08-08 06:43:17 AM

Good to know that the U.S. care for minorities and will not allow genocide of minority groups.

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Simphiwe Charlie
2014-08-08 06:53:13 AM

Yeah, they just commit genocide against the majority instead. F'n war mongers, haven't they killed enough people in Iraq already!

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Akhenaten
2014-08-08 07:04:44 AM

Simphiwe, and yet a group of leaders from Africa, including South Africa went to the U.S. for a summit, which is actually for financial help. Now if they are so kind as to help us, I would rather keep quiet about what they do in other countries. They cannot be all that bad, or maybe these leaders should have gone to Iraq.

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madumetja2
2014-08-08 07:34:32 AM

America never used limited air strikes against apartheid regime in south Africa and oppressing governments of north Korea, China and Russia...why?

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Victor Fedrick
2014-08-08 07:01:30 AM

Where is the arab world,are they going to fold their arms and watch iraq become another somalia?

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Nigel van Ysendyk
2014-08-08 08:43:42 AM

sitting on the fence as usual along with China, Japan, Russia, Switzerland & others

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John Stoltz
2014-08-08 07:12:38 AM

Nice call Obama, now you need to get the whole world united against all the Islamic terror groups and rid the world of this scourge, that has never contributed positively to any aspect of humanity!!

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jan.h.beukes.7
2014-08-08 07:16:16 AM

Is it not funny that the US will only use military force in countries where there is oil? Americans don't give a lick about the people they want the oil, qeustion: what's "limited airstrikes"? ... I don't care if its 20 missiles or just one, an airstrike is an arestrike!!!

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Allan van der Merwe
2014-08-08 07:30:15 AM

Jan! Weet jou ma jy speel op haar rekenaar? Tyd vir skool.

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JK101
2014-08-08 08:01:38 AM

You are so behind the times, US has more than enough of their own oil after undertaking extensive exploration off the coast of Texas/Gulf of Mexico. They can be virtually self sufficient.

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Nigel van Ysendyk
2014-08-08 08:25:23 AM

Well you are wrong, they have fought in Somalia, Afganistan, Korea, I don't think there is any oil in those countries, besides, they have developed technology to provide all of their own oil from Shale so they don't need to get any oil from other countries, sorry.